Constructed Languages and Their Role in Drama
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University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Honors Theses and Capstones Student Scholarship Spring 2019 Constructed Languages and Their Role in Drama Emelie Vandenberg University of New Hampshire Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/honors Part of the Acting Commons, Other Theatre and Performance Studies Commons, Performance Studies Commons, and the Television Commons Recommended Citation Vandenberg, Emelie, "Constructed Languages and Their Role in Drama" (2019). Honors Theses and Capstones. 449. https://scholars.unh.edu/honors/449 This Senior Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses and Capstones by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Constructed Languages and Their Role in Drama By Emelie Vandenberg Advised by: Prof. David Richman Prof. Deborah Kinghorn 12/14/2018 Dialect is the “distinctive vocabulary and grammar of someone’s use of language” that creates a sound so unique to that person that their character and language become one (Crystal and Crystal, 2014, pg. 16). In the recent production of Brian Friel’s masterpiece, Dancing at Lughnasa, at the University of New Hampshire, we see dialect play a significant role in the differentiation between characters, how it shapes them, bonds them, and how it separates them from each other (Friel, 2013). From the ideolects of the sisters to the changed dialect of their brother, Father Jack, and the Welshman hiding from himself, Gerry Evans, we see that character is influenced by dialect and dialect reflects character. The sisters around whom the story revolves have lived their entire lives in the small, fictional town of Ballybeg, Donegal County, Ireland which is close in location to Lough Anna - a small lake - and within driving distance of Ardstraw and Carrickfad. These factual locations gave enough detail to roughly triangulate the possible location of Ballybeg and to research the dialect of the surrounding area, that of Glenties. The Irish have always had immense pride in their masterful use of language and the Mundy sisters should be no exception, particularly the elder sisters Kate, a schoolteacher, and Maggie, the jokester of the family. Kate uses her language assiduously, taking great care with her pronunciation to the point where she sometimes comes across as pretentious. When she wants to, she uses her dialect as a weapon, sharpening her consonants and wielding them against her sisters in an attempt to maintain order in her home and to elevate her social position to that of a higher class. A character who “believe[s] in responsibilities and obligations and good order”, she “works hard at her job”, and she takes pride in her work, in her grasp of English (Friel, 2013). Maggie, as the 1 softer of the pair, uses her great ability to calm a situation using mischievousness to alleviate some of the stress Kate imposes of the family, sometimes in great opposition to Kate’s goals. There is also a sense of wistfulness, where she find other people “so beautiful [], so stylish”, so much more worthy of love than herself (Friel, 2013). Her idiolect uses more of the softer vowels to cushion her words, to sweeten the mood as much as she can. Agnes, Rose, and Chris tend to have more similar dialectic tendencies but wield their dialects in very different ways. Agnes, one of the main breadwinners of the family and a stolid companion to Rose tends toward a softer idiolect. She often softens some of her more strident sounds, lessening the impact for Rose who has a developmental deficiency. Although when she has an outburst, her strident consonants emerge fully as she calls Kate “a damned righteous bitch” in defense of her illicit love for Gerry Evans (Friel, 2013). In comparison, Rose’s dialect tends towards a more stuttering lilt, less controlled and more sporadic. She is less sure of herself than the other characters until her journey to Lough Anna with Danny Bradley. Her notions of a more romantic life are hinted at even at the top of the show as she and Maggie enjoy a moment of reprise and decide “the pair of [them] should be on the stage” (Friel, 2013, pg. 6). When she returns, Rose still retains some of her buoyant speech but grows into assurity, asserting that she has told her sisters “all any of [them] are going to hear” and finally ending a conversation (Friel, 2013). Chris maintains some of the characteristics of all of her sisters, equally parts airy and soft when she needs to be, but with a sharp tongue and a temper to match. She is fiercely protective of her love for Gerry Evans and has the vocal qualities of both the lover and the fighter. With lovely, buoyant lines such as, “Oh God, you know how I loved dancing, Aggie,” (Friel, 2013, pg. 13) we see her wishfulness which can contrast with other lines similar to, “Get out of my 2 road, will you?,” (pg. 6) which demonstrate her ferocity in equal parts with more potent vowels and drumbeat consonants. Gerry Evans is an incredibly complex dialect character. He and his family live in the south of Wales (we decided on the Rhondda valley) but he still visits Chris to keep up his relationship with her. The character is often played with a Standard British (RP) dialect and as such often loses much of his character. This dialect is standardised to reduce regionalistic sounds and to give a more generalized dialect. Used throughout dramatic literature, if used improperly it can diminish the meaning of the language and the intent of the playwright. Both the Irish and the Welsh have been oppressed by the English throughout their history and have had their native languages murdered by colonialist policy. To have Gerry as an RP speaker is to separate him even more from the plight of the Mundy family, of Ireland, to nearly erase the possibility of the union between him and Chris, and to neglect the evidence within the play. As he hides himself and his true life from the Mundy sisters, so might he disguise his Welsh dialect somewhat, pretending to speak in a higher class accent but never being able to fully participate in that world from whence he pretends to be, full of bluster; he even had “a thousand pupils” in his dance classes at one point (Friel, 2013, pg. 30). Compared to Gerry, Father Jack embodies the fall from grace and the acceptance of “lower class” appetites. An army priest who worked in a leper colony in Uganda. for the past twenty-five years, he grew to love and become heavily involved with the people for whom he cared. As this intimacy with a culture that celebrates the small and necessary things in life worked itself into his character, his dialect adopted some of the characteristics of Ugandan. The 3 audience gets a taste of this when he describes the people of Uganda and the rituals of their way of life, one in which he became immersed: “Oh, yes, the Ryangans are a remarkable people: there is no distinction between the religious and the secular in their culture. And of course their capacity for fun, for laughing, for practical jokes -- they’ve such open hearts! In some respects they’re not unlike us.” (Friel, 2013, pg. 51) Some of the warmer, less clipped musicality works itself into his dialect and grows stronger when he recalls his many years serving in the village of Ryanga. Through the lens of character do we see the vital importance of dialect in plays. The speech of individual characters has the power to separate or connect their daily world from that of ours. The way in which these characters speak denotes their status, not just in relation to the audience, but also the world and time period in which they live and the characters with whom they interact. Kate, through her strict speech, becomes an oppressive system to which the other characters grow to despise and, ultimately, thwart through their acceptance and fascination with Father Jack. Gerry’s dialect removes him from the Mundy sisters’ world even as he pretends to be a part of it. This is true for all plays in which dialect is written into the script, in which the language is altered to serve a purpose. Dialect and language build social barriers which a character must then overcome. Eliza Doolittle of both Pygmalion and My Fair Lady goes through a process of changing her natural dialect, Cockney, to RP in order to put on a presence of mature sophistication and to impress the men of the Upper Class, Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering (Shaw & Parker, 2006; Lerner & Loewe, 1975). This example shows that dialect is not only a 4 strong indicator of social rank and other admirable characteristics, but is also a tool to further a theatrical storyteller’s plot. Theatre as the art of storytelling often relies on realism in technical elements to convey the setting. The set, properties, costumes, lighting, and sound contribute to the sense of time, location, class, mood, and atmosphere. These elements are all that clue the audience into the world they will be immersed in for the next few hours. One of the most important parts of the theatrical package is the dialect of the actors. The sounds and mannerisms of a dialect clue the audience into the class, education, location, and time of the play quickly and succinctly given that the dialects have been executed well.